Saturday, March 13, 2010

A Day of Little Ones

Yesterday I was at my adopted school for the 2009-2010 school year - Roosevelt Elementary School, Sioux City, IA. I love coming here, as I have loved each of my past adopted schools. The fun of being a "artist-in-residence" for the year is the relationships I get to foster with students and teachers. Teachers are more at ease with me, students look forward to me coming and even the secretarial, custodial and cafeteria staff smile and accommadate on my arrival. It's a lot of fun.

My focus yesterday was a program for the Kindergarteners. A note had gone home with each Kindergartener inviting their parents to come, as well as their younger siblings. Also, each person who had already registered their child for Kindergarten for the next school year, was also invited. No, not many came, but we had a great time with all who were there. The goals were met: a) make the upcoming Kindergarteners feel welcome and excited about school; b) encourage literacy amongst the students and encourage the parents in this area; and, c) encourage exercise and eating well as a constant lifestyle. Plus, the Kindergarteners loved having me all to themselves. This time, they were the "big" kids and the program was just for them!

Earlier in the day, I visited other classrooms: Bigbee (5th grade) - reviewed my travel schedule since Jan. 11 (identifying states on the map and discussing state abbreviations) & learned a way to remember the 13 colonies. 2 students - Patrick and Tyler F. - had read a poem by Eloise Greenfield, "Way down in the music" from the book, Honey, I love you!, and put it to music so they could share it with me. It was great!! Moriarty (2nd grade) - focus was respecting others and not tattling. I told "Anansi and the Yam Hills" and we processed. Then they went into pairs and shared something nice about each other, and then pairs did the mirror game - learning to be the leader and the follower. Also, to understand that they were to take care of their classmates and respect them, because each one was/is special. Faulk (1st grade, w/ a smattering of 2nd grade) - Told "Aunt Kat" and processed Boettinger (2nd/3rd grade) - Reviewed story elements, and told "Uncle is Toad of Heaven" and then reviewed story elements and how to summarize from that story. Lamareoux - focus was learning to read aloud with expression, but no too loud. We did emotions and how the emotions sounded in our voice, and then used a book to focus on how the emotions sound as we read. Then we made up a story using a picture - just for fun. Vander Schaff (4th/5th grade) - We did the same as Ms. Bigbee's Class, however, we added "The Bumblebee Song." Loads of fun, because Ms. Carlson, the Principal, sang a couple of her childhood songs as well.